Proposed Medicaid Cuts Hit State Residents

July 30, 2011|By SHARON D. LANGER AND JOHN HOGARTH, The Hartford Courant

Marta Calderon of Bridgeport has cared for her teenage grandson since he was a toddler, but doesn't have health insurance through her employer. Recently the teen needed emergency treatment to prevent an infection. Medicaid paid for the procedure, and he is well. Marta's teenage granddaughter, who also lives with her, is scheduled for gallbladder surgery, which will be covered. Although Marta struggles to meet all her family's daily expenses, she is grateful for the life-sustaining coverage that Medicaid provides for her grandchildren.

Naomi Firme of Griswold was disabled by a particularly aggressive form of multiple sclerosis. Without Medicaid she would not be living at home or even alive today. Her Medicaid coverage enables her to get care at home and avoid more expensive nursing home care. Though she was expected to live less than two years when she went home from a nursing facility, she already has outlived her prognosis by nine years.

In Connecticut, Medicaid provides critical health care to more than 650,000 people such as Marta's grandchildren and Naomi — children, people with disabilities, seniors and other low-income adults. Medicaid is the primary insurer for almost 70 percent of the state's seniors in long-term care facilities. The program helps other seniors and people with disabilities live independently at home and has greatly contributed to reducing the number of uninsured children in the state.

Unfortunately, Medicaid is in the crosshairs of the budget discussions in Washington. Some in Congress want to make major cuts in the federal share of Medicaid funding. The House passed a budget plan that cuts Medicaid severely. States would receive a block grant — a flat amount of funding that would not change despite growing population or increasing needs. States would then have to cut services, raise taxes or reduce payments to health care providers in lieu of the lost federal dollars. This would further strain Connecticut's health care system, making it less able to meet the health and long-term care needs of residents.

Some in the Senate — including Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. — want to cut and cap all federal spending at levels significantly below where they are now. This would require such draconian cuts in Medicaid in coming years that the only way to achieve them would be a block grant program. No matter how it's done, capping the amount of funding will shift costs to states, families, seniors, persons with disabilities and health care providers.

Even the president's framework to reduce long-term deficits proposes at least $100 billion in reductions to Medicaid, with much of it likely coming from a plan to establish a single "blended rate" that cuts the amount the federal government will pay for a state's Medicaid costs. This would also shift costs back to states and individuals and make it harder for people to get health care.

The federal deficit must be addressed. But cutting off federal funds for Medicaid will not help to solve the underlying problem of rising health care costs. It will keep more seniors from receiving long-term care, more disabled adults from living independently and more children from seeing a doctor when they get sick. There are better ways to tackle this problem. Congress must continue the work started through recent health care reforms to identify and contain the rising cost of health care for the public and private sectors.

We need a balanced approach to deficit reduction. The president and congressional leaders should look at all parts of the budget for savings, but they must also look at the effect of various proposals on everyday Americans. Priority should be given to closing tax loopholes so the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. We shouldn't balance the budget by denying Marta's grandchildren and Naomi, or the millions like them the health care they need at critical times in their lives.

Sharon D. Langer is a senior policy fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children (ctkidslink.org) and John Hogarth is president of the Connecticut Coalition on Aging (coalitionagingct.org).